Nearly a quarter of girls aged 14 (22%) said they had self-harmed in just a year according to a new report by The Children’s Society.
One in six (16%) of more than 11,000 children surveyed reported self-harming at this age, including nearly one in 10 boys (9%).
The self-harm statistics follow new analysis included in the charity’s annual Good Childhood Report, which examines the state of children’s well-being in the UK. The report looks at the reasons behind the unhappiness which increases the risk of children self-harming.
Based on these figures, The Children’s Society estimates that across the East of England 7,280 girls and 3,130 boys aged 14 may have self-harmed during the same 12-month period.
Almost half of 14-year-olds who said they had been attracted to people of the same gender or both genders said they had self-harmed (46%), analysis of the Millennium Cohort Survey revealed. Four in ten of these children had shown signs of depression (39%) and three in ten had low well-being (30%) – both compared with 11 per cent of all children.
